Punctuality begins by word
Punctuality eludes Ghanaians. And when it does, we have all the 'right' reasons. Traffic is the most flogged off all the excuses.
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Lateness has become so synonymous with us that we have tended to coin phrases indicating the usualness of it.
Punctuality Ghana, gingered by the President's challenge in his State of the Nation and May Day addresses to strive to be punctual, has taken on the onerous task of campaigning for a "Ghana on time".
Already, they have the endorsements of the ministers of Information and Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), as well as the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UT Bank, Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng.
Punctuality Ghana is campaigning around timeliness in service delivery, punctuality and productivity at work and cutting out delays in processes and activities.
What is missing, though, is the advocacy on "punctuality talk".
Time Indecisive
"At about 10 ...," "Round about 5... ," "Maybe around 2:30..." is what most people scheduling an event or meeting will tell you when you ask, "What time is the meeting?"
As part of our lateness, we are never definite about time.
And that goes to the heart of the challenge of lateness.
Apart from being indecisive with giving the time for a meeting, we are frustratingly careless in keeping to time at all.
A group of professionals who bear the brunt of this indecisiveness and outrageous timeliness are journalists.
We are invited for press conferences and made to wait cluelessly until the ‘honourable big shots' finish with their pretentious pleasantries.
We are invited for major announcements and made to sit and wait until partners finish negotiations and their snacks before being called in.
The worst culprit is the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR).
Negotiations
On August 26, 2014, journalists were invited to cover a major announcement by the ministry in respect of some agitation by Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) members.
The meeting called at 10 a.m. saw members of POTAG walking in at 12.45 p.m.
The conference room doors were shut at 12.59 p.m. to journalists who were left to hang about in the corridors of the conference room with no information, except the prior one of covering a press conference.
At 1:45 p.m. when their legs were all sore from standing for hours, a sort of rough communique was ready and sent to the minister’s secretariat for typing out.
At about 2 p.m., a government representative at the meeting was seen going out, and that also began a caucus meeting by members of POTAG.
At 2.26 p.m., the then Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, arrived and was ushered into the minister of Employment’s secretariat.
At 2:39 p.m., POTAG concluded their caucus, came back into the conference room and asked for the minister to come in.
It was then that journalists were finally allowed to enter the conference room for the press conference.
Fast forward to the announcement of the National Daily Minimum Wage this year, and journalists were made to again wait for two hours from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. before the meeting started.
Negotiations take time and it would be fair to finish before journalists are called in.
